St Joan of Arc sparked so much interest during her lifetime - this teenager who led the French troops into battle who is burned at the stake. The place of her death became a place of pilgrimage almost immediately, and even though it took almost 5 centuries for her to become an officially canonized saint, having died in 1431 and canonized in 1920, she was a saint and a martyr in the eyes of the people for all that time. I remember going to the St Joan of Arc chapel on the campus of Marquette University in Milwaukee so many times when I was a seminarian in Milwaukee from 2004 to 2008, praying in a chapel where Joan of Arc herself prayed in France. One of my favorite novels, Black Robe, a fictionalized account of the Jesuit missionaries in French Canada, based on the life of St Jean de Brebeuf and his companions, depicts this young Jesuit priest and his mother going to the place where Joan of Arc was burn at the stake and praying before this young priest goes off to Canada. He and his mom realize this may be the last time they way see each other and that he himself may die a martyr’s death like Joan did, fears that unfortunately come to be realized. Yet, his sense of mission and his sense of conforming to God’s will, and his sense of being united with the community of the saints in proclaiming the Gospel to the ends of the earth, helps him overcome any fears and trepidations he has. St Joan of Arc, please pray for us.
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